Can we use digital life-log images to investigate active and sedentary travel behaviour? Results from a pilot study
- PDF / 1,328,169 Bytes
- 9 Pages / 595.276 x 793.701 pts Page_size
- 25 Downloads / 151 Views
RESEARCH
Open Access
Can we use digital life-log images to investigate active and sedentary travel behaviour? Results from a pilot study Paul Kelly1*, Aiden Doherty1, Emma Berry2, Steve Hodges2, Alan M Batterham3 and Charlie Foster1
Abstract Background: Active travel such as walking and cycling has potential to increase physical activity levels in sedentary individuals. Motorised car travel is a sedentary behaviour that contributes to carbon emissions. There have been recent calls for technology that will improve our ability to measure these travel behaviours, and in particular evaluate modes and volumes of active versus sedentary travel. The purpose of this pilot study is to investigate the potential efficacy of a new electronic measurement device, a wearable digital camera called SenseCam, in travel research. Methods: Participants (n = 20) were required to wear the SenseCam device for one full day of travel. The device automatically records approximately 3,600 time-stamped, first-person point-of-view images per day, without any action required by the wearer. Participants also completed a self-report travel diary over the same period for comparison, and were interviewed afterwards to assess user burden and experience. Results: There were a total of 105 confirmed journeys in this pilot. The new SenseCam device recorded more journeys than the travel diary (99 vs. 94). Although the two measures demonstrated an acceptable correlation for journey duration (r = 0.92, p < 0.001) self-reported journey duration was over-reported (mean difference 154 s per journey; 95% CI = 89 to 218 s; 95% limits of agreement = 154 ± 598 s (-444 to 752 s)). The device also provided visual data that was used for directed interviews about sources of error. Conclusions: Direct observation of travel behaviour from time-stamped images shows considerable potential in the field of travel research. Journey duration derived from direct observation of travel behaviour from timestamped images appears to suggest over-reporting of self-reported journey duration.
Background Active transportation, primarily walking and cycling, is an important behaviour in the fields of public health, environmental sustainability and transport planning [1-3]. From an environmental perspective, replacing carbon emitting motorised transport journeys with walking or cycling reduces pollutants and emissions, and can help to reduce traffic levels [2,4,5]. From a public health perspective, increasing an individual’s walking and cycling contributes to meeting the international guideline amounts of five times thirty minutes per week of moderate to vigorous physical activity [6-10]. * Correspondence: [email protected] 1 British Heart Foundation Health Promotion Research Group, University of Oxford, UK Full list of author information is available at the end of the article
A recent meta analysis showed that regular walking is significantly associated with reduced risk for all cause mortality [11]. In terms of public health it is an important form of activity because of a
Data Loading...
